Royal Navy International Air Day

On this day 1 May 1982

Twenty Sea Harriers of 800 and 801 Squadrons from HMS Hermes & Invincible bomb Port Stanley & Goose Green. BBC Correspondent the late Brian Hanrahan is unable to say how many aircraft were involved, but famously comments, ‘I counted them all out, and I counted them all back’.

The task force achieves its first aircraft kill when Flt Lt Paul Barton RAF, an exchange officer with 801 Squadron, flying CAP intercepted an Argentinean Mirage of Grupo 8 and shot it down with a Sidewinder missile. The pilot ejected and swam ashore.

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